URL virtual naming and metadata mapping

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9323856-B2
Application number	US-25095008-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 14, 2008
Priority date	Oct 14, 2008
Publication date	Apr 26, 2016
Grant date	Apr 26, 2016

Abstract

Mapping of a universal resource locator (URL) to a virtual world location may include receiving a URL for access to an entity, accessing a mapping of the URL to coordinates of a location of the entity in a virtual world, and providing access to the entity in the virtual world. A device that may include a network interface, the network interface being configured to receive a URL and provide access to a virtual world, and a memory, the memory containing at least one mapping of a URL to coordinates in the virtual world.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for mapping a universal resource locator (URL) to a virtual world location comprising:
receiving, by a processor of a domain name system (DNS) server, a URL entered by a user for access to an entity;
presenting, by the processor, an option to the user for selecting one of accessing the entity in a 2-Dimensional environment or a 3-Dimensional virtual world;
routing the URL from the DNS server to a hypertext transport protocol (HTTP) server, wherein the HTTP server is configured to identify the user selecting one of accessing the entity in the 2-Dimensional environment or the 3-Dimensional virtual world;
routing the URL to a 2-Dimensional web server infrastructure in response to the user selecting the 2-Dimensional environment;
routing the URL to a 3-Dimensional web server infrastructure in response to the user selecting the 3-Dimensional virtual world;
accessing, by the processor, a mapping of the URL to coordinates of a location of the entity in the 3-Dimensional virtual world in response to the user selecting to access the entity in the 3-Dimensional virtual world; and
providing, by the processor, the coordinates for access to the entity in the 3-Dimensional virtual world.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the mapping comprises metadata mapping the URL to the coordinates of the location in the virtual world.

3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the mapping comprises metadata mapping the URL to the coordinates of the location in one specific virtual world of at least two three-dimensional (3D) virtual worlds having the entity.

4. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the metadata comprises a data structure.

5. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the mapping the URL to the coordinates of the location in the virtual world comprises one of Extensible Markup Language (XML) and Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP).

6. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising revising the mapping responsive to movement of the entity to a new location, the mapping being revised to map the URL to the new location.

7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein revising the mapping responsive to movement of the entity to the new location is performed automatically.

8. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising accessing a virtual naming system (VNS) to access the mapping of the URL to coordinates of the location in the virtual world.

9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the mapping further comprises user prospective placement information relative to at least one of the location or an object at the location.

10. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising receiving information regarding an inventory of an avatar, the inventory information being useable to personalize the access to the location in the virtual world.

11. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising generating at least one prompt offering available options related to the location before providing access to the location in the virtual world.

12. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising receiving information regarding accessing the entity in one of a two-dimensional (2D) environment and in a three-dimensional (3D) virtual world.

13. The method according to claim 12 , further comprising receiving the information in a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) header.

14. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising receiving information regarding accessing the entity in a specific virtual world.

15. The method according to claim 14 , further comprising receiving the information in a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) header regarding accessing the entity in the specific virtual world.

16. A device comprising:
a processor of a domain name system (DNS) server for receiving a URL entered by a user for access to an entity;
a module operating on the processor, the module being configured to perform a set of functions comprising
presenting an option to the user for selecting one of accessing the entity in a 2-Dimensional environment or a 3-Dimensional virtual world;
routing the URL from the DNS server to a hypertext transport protocol (HTTP) server, wherein the HTTP server is configured to identify the user selecting one of accessing the entity in the 2-Dimensional environment or the 3-Dimensional virtual world;
routing the URL to a 2-Dimensional web server infrastructure in response to the user selecting the 2-Dimensional environment;
routing the URL to a 3-Dimensional web server infrastructure in response to the user selecting the 3-Dimensional virtual world;
accessing a mapping of the URL to coordinates of a location of the entity in the 3-Dimensional virtual world in response to the user selecting to access the entity in the 3-Dimensional virtual world; and
providing the coordinates for access to the entity in the 3-Dimensional virtual world.

17. The device according to claim 16 , wherein the device comprises a server.

18. The device according to claim 16 , wherein the coordinates define a location of an entity in the virtual world, the mapping of the URL to the coordinates of the location of the entity being automatically revised to map the URL to new coordinates responsive to the entity being moved to a second location at the new coordinates in the virtual world.

19. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer useable storage medium having computer useable program code embodied therewith, the computer useable program code comprising:
computer useable program code configured to receive a URL entered by a user for access to an entity, the URL being received by a domain name system (DNS) server;
computer useable program code configured to present an option to the user for selecting one of accessing the entity in a 2-Dimensional environment or a 3-Dimensional virtual world, the URL being routed from the DNS server to a hypertext transport protocol (HTTP) server, wherein the HTTP server is configured to identify the user selecting one of accessing the entity in the 2-Dimensional environment or the 3-Dimensional virtual world and the URL being routed to a 2-Dimensional web server infrastructure in response to the user selecting the 2-Dimensional environment or the URL being routed to a 3-Dimensional web server infrastructure in response to the user selecting the 3-Dimensional virtual world;
computer useable program code configured to access a mapping of the URL to coordinates of a location of the entity in the 3-Dimensional virtual world in response to the user selecting to access the entity in the 3-Dimensional virtual world; and
computer useable program code configured to provide the coordinates for access to the entity in the 3-Dimensional virtual world.

20. The computer program product according to claim 19 , further comprising computer useable program code configured to revise the mapping responsive to movement of the entity to a new location, the mapping being revised to map the URL to the new location.

21. The method of claim 1 , wherein routing the URL to the 3-Dimensional web server infrastructure comprises:
routing the URL to a virtual naming server (VNS) of the 3-Dimensional web server infrastructure; and
accessing by the VNS the 3-Dimensional virtual world hosted by a virtual world server of the 3-Dimensional web server infrastructure, the VNS comprising the mapping of the URL to coordinates of the location of the entity in the 3-Dimensional virtual world.

22. The method of c

Assignees

• Bokor Brian R
• House Daniel E
• Nicol Ii William B
• Haggar Peter F
• Smith Andrew B
• IBM

Inventors

• Bokor Brian R
• House Daniel E
• Nicol Ii William B
• Haggar Peter F
• Smith Andrew B

Classifications

• G06F9/45508

  Runtime interpretation or emulation, e g. emulator loops, bytecode interpretation · CPC title

• H04L29/08072

  Electricity · mapped topic

• G06F17/30595

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F17/30876 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F9/547

  Remote procedure calls [RPC]; Web services · CPC title